The Mysterious Island Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Captain Grant's Children

Chapter 128 The Mysterious Island (13)
These jobs continued until April 4, during which time the migrants worked extremely seriously.The immigrants during this time were potters, doing nothing but making pottery.If Cyrus Harding thought they ought to be blacksmiths, they would have done a good job as blacksmiths.However, the next Sunday, which was also Easter, was thought to be celebrated.These Americans are all religious, and they are also strict adherents of the Bible.Their present situation inspires their trust in their Creator even more.

On the evening of April 4, they returned to the "chimney" and brought back the remaining pottery.The fires in the kilns were extinguished, only to be relit when they found a new use.

When they returned, they found a gratifying thing, that is, the engineer discovered a substance suitable for replacing tinder.It's a spongy, gelatinous smooth thing from some kind of porous mushroom.Properly handled, this mushroom can become extremely flammable.Especially if it's pre-dipped with gunpowder, or boiled in a nitrate or potassium chlorate solution.Previously, they had not found such porous mushrooms, nor did they find morels that could replace them.That day, the engineer recognized a certain kind of Artemisia plant, which mainly includes bitter cabbage, citron, tarragon, and wormwood.He plucked several bunches, and handing them to the sailor, said: "Pencroft, you should be happy now!"

"What is this, Mr. Cyrus?" The sailor looked carefully at the plant in his hand. It was covered with silky long whiskers, and the leaves were also covered with down.

"This is a gift from God, is it tobacco?" the sailor continued to ask.

"No, it is Artemisia," replied Cyrus Harding. "To scholars it is Chinese Artemisia, and to us it is Tinder."

The engineer was right that the Artemisia species became a highly flammable substance when dried, especially after the engineer soaked them in a solution of potassium chlorate.There are several layers of potassium chlorate on the island, which is actually nitric acid.

That night they all gathered in the middle room and had a passable supper.Neb stewed a can of agouti and prepared a spiced capybara ham, along with boiled taro tubers.These tubers are like the 'Portland sago' sold in the UK and are delicious and nutritious.Its role can replace bread.In fact, the inhabitants of the island have not had bread until now.

After dinner, before going to bed, the engineer and his companions went for a walk on the beach.It was eight o'clock in the evening, and the night was beautiful.The moon had just been full five days ago, and it hadn't risen yet, but there was already a soft silver light shining on the sea.This can be said to be the dawn of the moon.Looking up at the starry sky, on the zenith of the southern hemisphere, the constellations near the South Pole are shining. Among these constellations, there is the Southern Cross constellation determined by engineers on the top of Mount Franklin a few days ago.

Cyrus Harding continued to observe the constellation, and found that at the top and bottom of the constellation there were two stars of first magnitude, one of second magnitude on the left, and one of third magnitude on the right.He looked at the planets, thought for a while, and asked Hubbert, "Is today April 4th?"

"Yes, sir," answered Hubbert.

"Thus, there are four days in a year when real time and normal time coincide. Tomorrow, if I am not mistaken, is one of those days. That is to say, tomorrow, with a gap of about a few seconds, the sun will reach the Meridian side. If the weather is fine, I can get the longitude of this island, and the error will not exceed a few degrees."

"No instruments? No sextant?" asked Jardine Splane.

"No," replied the engineer. "Besides, the night is clear today. By calculating the height of the Southern Cross, that is, the height of the South Pole above sea level, the latitude of the island can be calculated. Friends, you all know that before proceeding here Before settling down, it is not enough to confirm that this is an island, but also to confirm the distance between the island and the American continent or the Australian mainland, or even the main islands in the Pacific Ocean.”

"Yes, if we were only a hundred miles from the inhabited coast, we should not have bothered to build a house, but a boat," said Jardin Splane.

"So I will try to get the latitude of 'Lincoln Island' this evening. To-morrow, at noon, I will try to work out the longitude," said Cyrus Harding.

If at this time, the engineer had a sextant, that is, an instrument that accurately measures the angular distance of an object by reflection, it would be easy to measure it.That night, pass the height of the South Pole, and the next day, pass the sun to the meridian plane, and you can get the coordinates of the island.But in the absence of equipment, we can only find some substitutes.Cyrus Harding went back to the "chimney," and, by the faint light of the fire, whittled two small squares, and joined the ends together, so that they formed compasses.And the pin of compasses can separate also can gather together.The connection point is served by a large thorn of black locust.As for the black locust, there are plenty of it on the dead wood of the woodpile.

The simple instruments were fabricated, and the engineer returned to the beach.The calculations had to be made on a well-defined sea level, and the clawed promontory obscured the sea level to the south.Engineers still had to find a more suitable location.The ideal location is the coast facing due south, but to get there you must cross the "Grateful River".The river was very deep at this time, and it was not easy to cross it.

At last Cyrus Harding decided to try it on Prospect Heights.The height of "Prospect Heights" above sea level can be ignored for the time being. He plans to calculate the height the next day through the geometric method of mathematics.

So, everyone headed to "Looking Heights" together.They went up the left bank of the "Grateful River" and came to the northwest and southeast edges, which are the irregular rows of rocks beside the river.

This plateau rises fifty feet above the right bank, and extends, by slopes on either side, to the tip of the Claw Point and the south coast of the island.In the meantime, there is no obstacle to block the line of sight, and the limit of the sea level can be seen at a glance, from the "claw promontory" to the "serpentine promontory".The sea level to the south is illuminated by moonlight and is prominent in the sky, which is helpful for the accuracy of the measurement.

At this time, the constellation of the Southern Cross appeared to the observer as an upside-down situation, with Alpha at about 27 degrees from the South Pole, a situation known to Cyrus Harding.He will also take this distance into account in his calculations.It will be easiest for engineers to observe when it is in the meridian plane below.

Cyrus Smith made a wooden compass with one foot facing the sea level and the other foot facing the α star, and the opening of the two feet was the frontal angular distance between the α star and the sea level.In order to keep the obtained angle constant, he nailed the two small wooden boards of the instrument to the third wooden board with the thorns of locust locust.In this way, their spacing will remain the same.

Next, it's time to calculate the angle.He re-observed the sea level, which had to take into account the drop in sea level, so he also measured the height of "Prospect Heights".According to the numerical value of this angle, the height of the α star is provided, which also provides the height of the celestial pole above the sea level.This is the latitude of the island, for the latitude of a point on the earth is always equal to the height of the celestial pole on the horizon at that point.

The next calculation will have to wait until tomorrow.Around ten o'clock, everyone fell asleep.

determine coordinates
The next day, Easter Sunday, the migrants emerged from the "chimneys" at dawn to wash their laundry.The engineer intends to make soap, but first he needs the raw materials, that is, soda or potash, fat or oil.The replacement of new clothes is also an important issue, which should be studied at the right time and place.In any case, they still have enough clothes for at least half a year.These fabrics are strong and can withstand the wear and tear of physical activity.All this depends on the location of the island, that is, whether it is close to or far from inhabited land.If the weather conditions permit, then this problem can be solved today.

At this moment, the sun has risen from the horizon, which indicates that today is a good day.On such a sunny autumn day, such good weather seems to be saying goodbye to the scorching sun.

The first thing to do today is to complete the data from the previous night and measure the height of "Prospect Heights" above the ground level.

"Don't you have a tool this time? Like the one you made yesterday?" Hubbert asked the engineer.

"It's not necessary," replied the engineer. "Son, we're going to use another method this time, which is just as accurate."

Hubbert was always full of interest and curiosity in new things, followed the engineer one after another, left the base of the granite cliff, and came to the beach.Meanwhile, the reporter, the sailor, and Neb were busy with other things.

Cyrus Harding had a straight pole twelve feet long, measured as exactly as he could, having been made by comparison with his own height.The engineer knew his height well enough to be within a point of error.Hubbert held in his hand a plumb line, which Cyrus Harding had given him.The vertical line used here is nothing more than a stone fixed at the end of a flexible fiber.

The two of them came to a point twenty feet from the edge of the sand and about five hundred feet from the vertical granite cliff.Cyrus Harding plunged the pole into the sand two feet deep and held it securely in place.He passes the vertical line so that the straight pole is perpendicular to the sea level.

Then, the engineer backed up, backed up until he was prone on the ground, and his line of sight was in contact with the top of the straight pole and the top of the cliff.Then he marked the spot with a stake.So he asked Hubbert, "Do you know the basic principles of geometry?"

"Understand, Mr. Cyrus," said Hubbert very modestly, without wanting to show off.

"Do you remember the characteristics of the two similar triangles?" asked the engineer.

"Remember, their corresponding sides are proportional," replied Hubbert.

"Okay, boy, I just made two similar right triangles, the first one is smaller, and two of the sides are the vertical pole and the distance between the stake and the lower end of the pole, and my line of sight is the hypotenuse Another triangle whose two sides are the height of the vertical cliff and the distance between the stake and the base of this cliff, the hypotenuse of which is also formed by my line of sight. Only, this hypotenuse is the first triangle An extension of the hypotenuse."

"Ah, I see, Mr. Cyrus," cried Harbert, "the distance between the post and the straight pole is proportional to the distance between the post and the base of the cliff, that is to say, the distance between the straight pole and the The height is proportional to the height of the cliff."

"That's it, Harbert," replied the engineer, "after we have measured the first two distances, the height of the straight pole is known, and we need only calculate the ratio, which will give us the height of the cliff, It doesn’t take much effort to measure directly.”

They measured the distance between the two levels with a straight pole, which measured exactly ten feet in the sand.

The first distance is fifteen feet, that is, from the stake to where the straight pole stands.

The second distance was five hundred feet, the distance from the stake to the base of the cliff.

These data having been measured, Cyrus Harding and Herbert returned to the Chimney.

In "The Chimney," the engineer took a flat stone he had picked up from a previous excursion and wrote numbers on it with pointed shells.So he came up with the following proportions:

15:500=10:x
500 10 × = 5000
5000 / 15 = 333.33
From this it follows that the height of the granite cliff is 330 feet.

Next, Cyrus Harding took out the apparatus which he had made the night before, and separated its two small boards, which were the angular distances between Alpha and the level of the sea.He divided a circle into 360 equal parts and used it to accurately measure the opening of this angle.The angle is ten degrees.Adding to this angle the 27 degrees between Alpha Star and the South Pole, and subtracting the height of the observation site at sea level, Cyrus Harding concluded that Lincoln Island was at 37° South latitude, considering the imperfections of the operation In fact, the island is probably located between 35° and 40° south latitude, with an error of about five degrees.

The next thing to do is to measure the longitude, and the coordinates of the island are determined.This work can only be done by engineers at noon, that is, when the sun reaches the meridian.

This Sunday, everyone decided to go on another hike.This is a survey between the north of the lake and "Shark Bay".If time permits, they will continue north, until the north of the "South Jaw".If this is the case, today's lunch can only be settled in the sand dunes, and we will not be able to return until evening.

The group of them set off at 08:30 in the morning.On the other side, the "safety island," many birds were walking about.This bird is called a diving bird and belongs to the penguin family.This is mainly judged from the cry they make, which is reminiscent of the bray of a donkey.Sailors don't care about its calls, they just treat them as food.When he heard that their flesh was only slightly blackened, which did not affect the taste, Pencroft had a look of joy on his face.

Also, they saw a group of fat reptiles in the sand, presumably seals or something.It appears that the seals are using the island as their hiding place.These animals are not edible, their meat is unimaginably fatty.Cyrus Harding, however, watched them intently, and said nothing.But his companions have seen his intentions, and it seems that they will visit the island recently.

The settlers walked the shore, surrounded by shells, some of which might excite mollusc lovers, some clams and oysters.Most exciting, however, was the large school of oysters that Neb had discovered.Neb found it among rocks about four nautical miles from the "chimney" when the sea was low.

"You will not be wasting your day, Neb," cried Pencroft, looking out to the sea of ​​oysters.

"This is indeed a lucky discovery. It is said that each oyster can lay [-] to [-] eggs per year. If this is the case, then we don't have to worry, this is an inexhaustible reserve." The reporter said.

"However, I don't think oysters are a nutritious food."

"Yes, there is only a small amount of nitrogen in oysters, and if you eat oysters alone, no less than fifteen or sixteen dozen a day is enough to meet the needs of the human body," said Cyrus Harding.

"Okay! We can eat by the dozen before the oysters are gone. How about lunch?" said the sailor, knowing that his suggestion would win everyone's approval, so he didn't wait. Answered, and together with Neb picked some of these molluscs, and put them into net bags.This mesh bag is made of hibiscus fiber by Naboo.Then they continued along the coast between the dunes and the sea.

Cyrus Harding was constantly looking at his watch, always ready to observe the sun, and the measurements had to be completed by noon.

This part of the island is quite desolate, as far as the point where the "United States Bay" approaches, where the "South Jaw" point is.Nothing but sand and shells mixed with lava fragments.However, there are several kinds of birds that frequent this deserted beach, such as gulls, great albatrosses, and mallards.These birds make sailors salivate.He tried to shoot some with arrows, but failed.These birds hardly ever stop flying, you have to shoot them while they are flying.

Therefore, the sailor kept saying to the engineer: "You see, our equipment is in urgent need of improvement, and the best thing we can have is a shotgun."

"Probably, Pencroft," said the reporter, "it depends entirely on you. The materials needed for making guns, such as iron for barrels, steel for percussion, saltpetre, charcoal, and sulfur for powder, Mercury and nitric acid to make thormer, and, of course, lead for bullets. You go and prepare them for us, so that Cyrus will make us good guns."

"We can probably find all these substances you speak of from the island," said Cyrus Harding, "but a firearm is a very delicate instrument, and requires tools of great precision. In short, after this matter talk later."

"Why did we have to throw away our weapons?" said the sailor. "Why did we have to throw away our weapons then? Throw everything out of the basket, including our tools and even my pocket knife!"

"The balloon will throw us into the bottom of the sea if we don't, Pencroft," said Harbert.

"Yes, you are right, my boy," answered the sailor.

Then he changed his mind and said, "I've been thinking about how surprised Foster and his companions were when they found the balloon missing the next day."

"I wonder what they'll think!" said the reporter.

"That was my idea," said the sailor triumphantly.

"It's a good idea, but it brought us here," the reporter said.

"I'd rather stay here than be in Richmond, in the hands of the Confederates," said the sailor, "especially when Mr. Cyrus Harding is reunited with us."

"Me too," said the reporter. "Besides we don't want anything! Don't we?"

"If that's not all," said Pencroft, shrugging his shoulders, and laughing, "we shall get out of here some day."

"Perhaps sooner than you think," said the engineer, "if 'Lincoln Island' is not too far from the inhabited archipelago or the mainland. We shall know the answer to that before one o'clock. We have no maps of the Pacific, but I am I still remember the part of the south clearly. According to my latitude calculation yesterday, 'Lincoln Island' is close to New Zealand in the west and the coast of Chile in the east. There is a distance of about [-] nautical miles between these two continents. To be sure The question is, where in the vastness of the Pacific is the island. We shall have the answer in a moment, when the longitude of the island is determined, I hope."

"Isn't the Pamotu Islands nearest to us in latitude?" asked Hubbert.

"Yes," replied the engineer, "but the distance between us and it may exceed one thousand two hundred nautical miles."

(End of this chapter)